In the early 1970s, the pioneer generation of graffiti writers from A-One to Zephyr were making their presence known on New York’s streets and subways. Theirs were wild, energetic styles that caught the ire of the authorities—but more significantly, they also captured the eye of gallerists and fellow artists. In time, it’s the latter group that would fix graffiti as an art form (and then, art market juggernaut), transplanting it from the urban jungle into the white cube.

A new exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) revisits exactly this moment of graffiti’s evolution. At “Above Ground: Art from the Martin Wong Graffiti Collection,” you’ll find works by some of the field’s key players—Keith Haring, Lady Pink, Rammellzee, Haze, Futura 2000, Tracy 168—created not on a city wall or subway door, but on canvas. It’s a major turning point, reckons curator Sean Corcoran, during which the artists more than met the moment.

“These young people had real ambitions to make work in a more traditional setting,” he told me during a walk-through of the exhibition. “Sometimes it carried that same energy that happened on the streets. Sometimes it transformed and became something totally different.”

Installation view of “Above Ground” at the Museum of the City of New York. Photo courtesy of MCNY.

To capture what Corcoran described as “a real serious turn by some of these young people to create something real and permanent,” the exhibition opens with artifacts marking graffiti’s move into the mainstream. There’s a May 1974 Esquire cover story written by Norman Mailer (“The Faith of Graffiti”) and a flurry of flyers announcing various graffiti showcases at galleries (Lee Quiñones at Barbara Gladstone in 1982, Haring at Shafrazi Gallery in 1987, and so on).

But of course, it’s the canvases that are the main draw for transmuting an ephemeral form into something far more enduring. A handful have been pulled from the collection of Martin Wong, the painter and collector whose avid amassing of graffiti works led to his founding of the Museum of American Graffiti in the East Village in 1989. In 1994, prior to his premature death, Wong gifted his 300-strong collection to the MCNY. The bulk of these holdings are on view in its traveling show “City as Canvas” (also organized by Corcoran), which opened in 2014 and is currently on view at the Hunter Museum in Tennessee.

Keith (Dez) Grayson, Kaygee (ca. 1985). Photo courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York.

For “Above Ground,” some previously unseen gems from Wong’s trove have been unrolled—literally—for the first time in decades. There’s Delta 2’s astounding 1984 work, large and earth-toned but for some blinding white spray-paint sparkles, which was newly cleaned and stretched for the show. A ca. 1985 Kaygee tag on canvas by Dez, aka Keith Grayson or DJ Kay Slay, also gets a rare outing, as does a Haring monograph featuring doodles by the late artist and his frequent collaborator LA II.

Installation view of “Above Ground” at the Museum of the City of New York. Photo courtesy of MCNY.

What’s notable, Corcoran pointed out, was the sheer breadth of techniques that the artists deployed across their canvases. While sticking with their choice tool, the aerosol can, they nonetheless devised methods to variously achieve bold strokes, splatters, and wispy lines. Stan 153’s creation of a crinkled-paper effect using an airbrush, in particular, is spectacular.

“Today, artists have their spray paint manufactured specifically for their use,” he said. “But these guys only had maybe four or four different kinds of cans, and they had to figure out how to get the desired effect through a lot of experimentation and practice.”

Stan 153, Green Krinkle in Stereo (1983). Photo courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York.

Most poignantly, the exhibition acutely reflects the positive effect of patronage—specifically Wong’s—on the nascent art form. Wong’s support did not stop at snapping up these canvases; his presence is woven through their back stories. You get a sense of it in a documentary, filmed by Charlie Ahearn of Wild Style fame, that screens in the gallery: in it, archival interviews with Wong are interspersed with contemporary footage of artists including Daze and Quiñones discussing their time with Wong and the works he collected.

Lee Quiñones, Breakfast at Baychester (ca. 1980). Photo courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York.

That relationship is further drawn out in one of the show’s most striking pieces, Quiñones’s Breakfast at Baychester (ca. 1980). A pencil composition, it delicately details the inner machinery of two subway trains, with two apartment blocks rising in the background. The artist had filled in some areas with color but, according to Corcoran, was encouraged by Wong to stop and leave it unfinished, allowing his meticulous draftsmanship to stand out.

Installation view of “Above Ground” at the Museum of the City of New York. Photo courtesy of MCNY.

As meaningful is another work by Crash, titled Broken Wings (1990). A striking presence in the gallery, the assemblage is dynamic with a bold, Pop art aesthetic and affixed with shards of painted wood. Crash created the piece as part of an artwork swap with Wong, but the pair never got around to it before the latter’s passing. It has remained wrapped up in storage, until now.

“He’s like, ‘I’ve held it for him ever since, and I’ve never brought it out, or done anything with it,'” Corcoran recalled Crash telling him of the painting, “‘but this is the right reason to show it.'”

“Above Ground: Art from the Martin Wong Graffiti Collection” is on view through August 10, 2025 at the Museum of the City of New York, 1220 5th Ave, New York.